THE FRENCH A CADEMY. 3 1 5 



were taken too much account of, would make inactivity 

 to seem the highest wisdom. The days are dark ; we 

 are working in the night ; let us work on neverthe- 

 less. The Preacher spoke well when he said that no 

 one can tell whether the inheritor of the fortune which 

 he has built up will be wise or a fool. But did this 

 gifted philosopher draw thence the conclusion that we 

 should do nothing? Not at all. An inward voice 

 urges us on to action. Man does great deeds by 

 instinct, just as the bird wings its flight, guided 

 by a mysterious map which it carries within its 

 tiny brain. 



" You have not disguised from yourself the fact 

 that the cutting of the isthmus would serve alter- 

 nately very varied interests. The great saying, { I 

 have come to bring not peace but war,' must have 

 frequently recurred to your recollection. The isthmus 

 cut becomes a strait that is to say, a battle-field. 

 One Bosphorus had sufficed till now to give trouble 

 enough to the world. You have created another, 

 much more important than the first, for it does not 

 place in communication two parts of an inland sea. 

 It serves as a passage of communication between all 

 the great seas of the world. In case of maritime war 

 it would be the supreme interest, the point for the 

 occupation of which the whole globe would make a 

 rush. You have thus fixed the spot for the great 

 battles of the future. 



" What more can we do than ring round the field 



